Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty began his presentation to the Chattanooga Pachyderm Club on Monday by giving his thoughts on the Democratic debates and the performance of one man in particular.
“Did any of you see Mini Mike’s debate performance,” asked Mr. Hagerty, speaking about Mike Bloomberg. “Here you’ve got a guy who wants to diminish the value of American commerce and who wants to take our guns. He wants to spend billions of dollars of his own money, and it’s not working out so well for Mike either.”
A notable part of the Bloomberg campaign is gun law reform. When the candidate was in Chattanooga, Mr. Bloomberg spoke about stricter background checks when purchasing guns at shows or online, in order to make sure that the mentally ill or those unfit to own guns cannot possess weapons.
“He wants to violate the Constitution and I’m completely opposed to it,” said the former U.S. ambassador to Japen when asked about Mr. Bloomberg’s ideas. “I support the second amendment. I think that people who have mental illnesses need to be treated appropriately, and people who are disturbed need that sort of care or treatment, but it doesn’t require eliminating or infringing on the second amendment.”
While he did not claim to know who would win the Democratic nomination, he seemed to predict that Bernie Sanders would be the Democrat nominee come November.
“It’s very interesting to watch what the Democrat Party has to contend with, and I don’t know what they’re going to wind up with. But it certainly looks like they’re going to put a Socialist on the ballot.”
The speaker voiced his support for President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign. He emphasized President Trump’s record since taking office in 2016, and then pledged his support for conservative ideals at the federal level.
“We’ve got President Donald Trump and he is on a roll right now,” said Mr. Hagerty. “He did a great job during the State of the Union Address, laying out accomplishment after accomplishment. I told him what an honor it was to be endorsed by him, and also what an honor it was and how pleased I was to have an opportunity to work alongside him to help achieve some of those accomplishments.”
He voiced his strong opposition to universal healthcare, citing the power the government would possess if Bernie Sanders’ plan became reality.
“You need somebody who will stand with him and have his back when dealing with radical Democrats that have been trying, since day one, to undo the results of the 2016 election. When you talk about socialism, just look at their policies. This Medicare for all? You think Obamacare was bad, just wait until the government runs every aspect of our healthcare system and takes away our private insurance,” he said.
If elected, Mr. Hagerty promised to support President Trump’s plan to build a wall on the Mexican border. He also told the Pachyderm Club he would fight against abortion and promised to defund an organization famous for supporting it.
“I’ll stand with him to secure our borders, and say yes to building the wall,” said Mr. Hagerty. “I’ll stand up for law enforcement and our military and our veterans. I’ll stand strong for the second amendment, and I will stand for life. When I hear democrats on the stage talking about abortion being a human right, I tell you, it takes a human life. I’ll do everything I can to defund Planned Parenthood.”
He told the conservative club he would continue the fight against terrorism in the Middle East. Mr. Hagerty believed the missile strike that killed Iranian leader Qasem Soleimani served a valuable purpose for the world’s perception of America.
“I’ll call radical Islamic terrorism what it is, and I’ll call it what it isn’t,” said Mr. Hagerty. “And I’ll tell you, the president made the world safer when he took out Soleimani. And he also sent a very important message to the rest of the world. Today our enemies fear us again, and our allies respect us, and that’s how it should be.”